The Political Divide

Ukrainian researchers flee the war

Among the many disruptions forced on the Ukraine is the disruption of basic science research. According to a March 14, 2022, story in Science, “before the invasion, Ukraine had nearly 80,000 scientists. Many have left and others are fighting the Russian invaders.” An impromptu international effort, Science for Ukraine, “has lined up hundreds of jobs for refugee scientists—mainly women, as Ukraine forbids most men under 60 from leaving the country.”

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Guidance for funders making grants to support Ukraine

At the Nettleton household, we determined the most direct way to support the Ukrainian people was to contribute to World Central Kitchen, which has set up food lines along the Ukrainian border crossing and is working with restaurants in Ukraine to provide free meals to those in need. To assist larger philanthropic funders, a March 16, 2022, blog on the Candid website provides guidance from the Council on Foundations for those funders wanting to make grants to support Ukraine.

Climate Change

Factoids on a gallon of gasoline from creation to climate change

According to a story in The Atlantic, on March 16, 2022, “each gallon of gasoline comprises 98 metric tons of ancient sea life, compressed by geology and chemistry into a liquid that can propel a 2,000-pound car the distance that a man could walk in a day. Burning that gallon of gasoline also releases 20 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, where it will eventually warm the climate and acidify the ocean.”

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Drought in the West to expand through June

NOAA’s March 17, 2022, Spring Outlook, predicts prolonged, persistent drought in the West where below-average precipitation is most likely. “Severe to exceptional drought has persisted in some areas of the West since the summer of 2020 and drought has expanded to the southern Plains and Lower Mississippi Valley. With nearly 60% of the continental U.S. experiencing minor to exceptional drought conditions, this is the largest drought coverage we’ve seen in the U.S. since 2013.” Image courtesy NOAA.

Future of Work / The Economy

Inflation and the Fed, “This will not end well”

In the March 17, 2022, edition of CEO Daily, Alan Murray, Fortune Media CEO, discusses inflation. “This year still looks strong. But the sad cycle of energy and commodity price increases accompanied by wage and salary demands will continue to drive inflation and leave the Fed hopelessly behind the curve in fighting it. This will not end well. The only open question is when.” He points out that in the past 60 years of economic history, “there are few if any instances of inflation declining substantially without significant slowdown.”

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Innovation propels creative destruction

Water guru Will Sarni, in the March 21, 2022, edition of his Water Foundry newsletter, discusses the entrepreneur’s role in the economy. “It is the entrepreneur who not only creates invention but also creates competition from a new commodity, new technology, new source of supply and a new type of organization. The entrepreneur creates competition, “which commands a decisive cost or quality advantage and which strikes not at the margins of the profits and the outputs of the existing firms but at their foundations and their very lives.” This innovation propels the economy with “gales of creative destruction,” which “incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one.”

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Why gasoline prices are soaring and demand is lessening

A March 13, 2022, story in CNN Business provides a useful primer on why U.S. gasoline prices are soaring even though the U.S. uses very little Russian oil. Another article, in Yahoo Finance on March 22, 2022, says demand is starting to lessen. “Above $4 per gallon, you do see the American public change their driving habits. And we do actively see demand destruction.”

Covid-19

If no one else is wearing a mask, should you?

National Geographic, in a March 24, 2022, story, addressed the question: If no one else is wearing a mask, should you? The story provides the rationale for when to wear a mask even as mask mandates are dropped throughout the country, and as the new BA.2 variant spikes in Europe.

The Nett Light-Side

Frogs with see-through bellies

According to the March 23, 2022, edition of National Geographic’s newsletter, scientists have found two new species of frogs in the Andes of Ecuador that have a see-through belly “that reveals their red heart, white liver and digestive system.” The eggs can be seen in the females. Image courtesy National Geographic, Jaime Culebras.

 

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Stan the T. Rex is found

In the same issue of the National Geo newsletter referenced above, news broke that Stan the T. Rex had been found. On October 5, 2020, Stan sold for $31.8 million at a Christie’s New York auction then disappeared. The full skeleton of Stan the T. Rex reappeared recently at his new home, a new natural history museum in Abu Dhabi. Image courtesy National Geographic, Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi.